


Just three simple words

by Marvelgeek42



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Amputee James Potter, Amputee Sirius Black, F/M, Gen, Good Severus Snape, PoC Dorcas Meadowes, Regulus Black Lives, Regulus is a spy, The Moody Approach, Time Travel, Voldemort is too trusting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-14
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-01 14:26:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5209253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvelgeek42/pseuds/Marvelgeek42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's actually kind of funny how much three simple words changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Old

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChildOfHades18](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=ChildOfHades18).



> Requested by [ChildOfHades18](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5117391/).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hover over German text for translations (mobile and tablet users please see the Ending Notes)!

Harry sighed, dodging a curse.

He had imagined his life as a healer differently, had thought he was done fighting (this was why he was a Healer, not an Auror).

Yet, here he was. Fighting for his life yet again.

Why did they have to attack St Mungo's? Why not the Ministry? Or Hogwarts? Or Hogsmeade? Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes perhaps? Or even Taco Bell?

But no, it had to be _his_ workplace! That was most likely the reason, too. Enemies were way to hard to get rid off without fighting (killing), honestly!

Why couldn't they just, like, _let him live his fucking life in peace_?

His internal monologue was interrupted by a curse _in his freaking back_!

Hopefully, he'd just die in peace.

Whatever remained of Harry snorted. Yeah, right. 

* * *

“Hello? Can you hear me? Are you awake? Phemy, he's waking up!” a man's voice shouted. “You gave us quite a scare, Mister. When Milly told us someone just fell from the sky, just outside our wards too, my heart skipped a beat, I swear!”

It seemed like he was not dead. Maybe it hadn't been the Avada Kedavra after all (if he survived the thrice damned curse three times, he would quit everything and hide).

Harry opened his eyes and pushed himself into a sitting position.

“Here drink something. Who are you anyways?” the man in front of him questioned, giving him a glass of water.

Before he was able to answer (his throat had been too dry and he needed to drink something first), five people around the age of nineteen entered the room.

The strange thing was, that they were wearing muggle clothes that had been popular the late _seventies_.

“So our mysterious guest finally woke up. Im still not sure why we keep him here if we don't even know he's not a Death Eater.”

Harry knew that voice, but it was very unlikely for him to be here. Impossible in fact. Simply impossible. Insane too. After all it could not be that he was in the, in the past, _without_ a time turner.

...Could it?

“Because we have no sign to think he is one, we have a number advantage and the world isn't divided into Order Members and Death Eaters, Sirius. I'm Lily Evans, soon to be Potter. What's your name?” the teenage girl with dark red hair asked him.

His weird theory was right! He was indeed in the past!

Now he needed to do some quick thinking, he could not introduce himself as Harry Potter after all.

Evan from Evans maybe… White from Black...

“I'm Evan. Evan Hamish White.”

* * *

He stayed. They did not kick him out and he had nowhere better to go.

When they asked him what happened for him to fall from the sky, he told the truth, only editing out the time travel and the precise location of the fight.

It pained him to see his parents, Sirius and Remus with the traitor.

Should… should he tell them? Should he warn them?

No, it would be selfish to possibly condemn the lives of countless other people just so he could have his parents.

* * *

“What are you reading there Remus?” Harry questioned on his first evening. He had just entered the living room, where everyone seemed to pursue their interests.

He did not receive an answer.

“Remus?”

“You have to be louder if you want him to notice you while he is reading,” Sirius advised from his place on the sofa where he, Lily, Fleamont, Euphemia and Pettigrew were watching _Jaws_ (Pettigrew - Peter? - turned out to be totally obsessed with movies of all kinds). Sirius seemed to be writing or designing something too.

“Yeah,” James looked up from the table. “Like this. THE LIBRARY IS BURNING DOWN!”

Remus jumped. “Huh? What? Fire?”

James shook his head, laughing uncontrollably. “Nah, Evan here wanted to know what you are reading,” he eventually managed to explain.

“Oh.” Remus turned to Harry. “Sorry about that. I am reading the third _Lord of the Rings_ book and I only have about fifty pages left, so if you would excuse me?”

“Sure. Sorry.” But Remus had already returned to the wonderful world of literature.

“Don't worry, he's like this to everyone,” James told him. “Sirius, could you stop writing that ad for a moment? I need to visualize a pose.”

“Sure. As long as it is a somewhat normal pose this time.”

“It is, I swear,” James promised.

Harry went over to the table he was sitting at and looked at the picture he was drawing.

“Wow, this is good!” Harry exclaimed in surprise.

“It sure is,” Fleamont stated proudly. “James is a very talented artist.”

“Dad!”

“Don't protest my son. You are and you know it,” Euphemia shook her head.

Twenty minutes later, when the movie was over, Sirius and Peter were discussing what to watch next.

“Well, I will be going to bed now if you all don't mind,” Fleamont said standing up. “Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”

“You're right Mr. Potter,” Lily agreed. “We should be going to bed now. Most of up have to work tomorrow. No offense Remus, Evan.”

Remus shook his head. “None taken.”

“What do you work as?” Harry inquired.

“Well, Dad is an Auror, Sirius and me are in training, Mom's a healer, Lily is in healer training and Peter is an intern in the Departement of Security.”

There went the argument that Harry's parents would be ashamed of him being a healer rather than an auror. Not that he believed it in the first place.

* * *

Three days later Harry heard the sound of a violin or two and decided to investigate.

He found Sirius teaching Lily how to play.

“Good! Just try to make your movement a bit smoother, like this.” Sirius demonstrated what he meant.

Lily copied his movements.

“I knew you would be a natural. Oh, hey Evan.”

“Hello.”

“Hi… this sounded very good,” Harry complimented.

“Thank you. Lily is very talented when it concerns music. Singing, playing instruments - or those three she tried so far - and I bet should she finally compose something she would eome famous.”

“I'm not even half as good as you are! If I were to compose something no one would want to listen to it!” Lily argued.

“Lily. You have been learning how to play for two weeks. I was forced to learn how to play when I was four,” Sirius deadpanned. “And that is a lie. James would listen to it, even if it sounded like rubbish, which it will not.”

“Sounds like you have this discussion a lot,” Harry noted.

“I do! Not only with her though. Both Remus and James refuse to publish their works and Peter is not sharing his recipes with anyone. That I can deal with though. I love being his taste tester.”

“I know James draws, but what does Remus do?”

“He writes,” Lily answered. “Very good too from what I borrowed from him.”

“It's not borrowing if he does not know you took it,” Sirius disagreed.

Then, Euphemia entered the room. “Oh, hello. Sirius, I wanted to remind you that you have a German lesson in an hour.”

“You're learning how to speak German?”

“Nope. _Ich unterrichte es._ ”

Lily must have seen the confusion on his face. “He speaks English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Mandarin even though no one has an idea where he picked the last three up. Oh, and Remus started to teach him Welsh last week.”

“And after that I will learn Russian,” Sirius stated. “Let's get back to our lesson.”

* * *

 

Harry never stopped debating whether or not he should he say these three simple words?

He would save them, but… at what cost?

Neville would surely be suffering his fate. There was no telling who else would die. Kingsley? Molly? Dean, perhaps? Ron? Hermione?

No, he wouldn't do that. He couldn't.

* * *

Two weeks after his arrival he started to feel a weird tugging in his stomach. At first, he was able to ignore it, but soon it started to hurt. Harry guessed his stay in 1978 was over.

Which again brought him to his struggle. Was he selfish enough to do this?

Harry came to a final decision.

Yes, yes he was. Even he was allowed to be selfish for once in his lifetime. Heaven knows he had never been before. Or at least not in the time he could recall. He took a deep breath of air and told everyone in the room (everyone under twenty): “Don't trust Peter!”

Before they could do more than look at him confused, he fell unconscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> German translations  
> Ich unterrichte es - I teach it.


	2. Shifting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Marauders and Maraudettes take after Moody and Regulus requests help.

“What the hell?” Remus questioned when their strange visitor (he was beginning to think their trust had been misplaced. Most likely the guy's name wasn't even Evan) seemed to lose consciousness before simply vanishing. Vanishing, as in one second there then gone, but without any movement of apparition.

“Why shouldn't we trust Wormtail?”

“The guy was insane!”

But then Peter started to look both defensive and guilty, slowly but surely all of them started to think it over.

“Now that I think about it, Peter _has_ been absent quite often,” Lily thought out loud. “Your Mother cannot be ill that often.”

“That's true. It's like when Remus tried to keep his secret,” Sirius compared.

Their conversation went on like this until they came to the point when Peter confessed being a spy.

Sirius stunned Peter while James ran to get his parents and Lily was calling the aurors. Remus was too busy holding himself back to do anything more than that.

It did not take long until Alastor Moody and his group of aurors arrived to arrest Peter.

“You reacted well,” Moody complimented them. “Preventing him from fleeing and alerting both the auror office and the one already in the house, good job, kiddos. You're a good team. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!”

* * *

Later that day the four nineteen-year-olds were lazing around in James room. Remus was sitting in an armchair reading what looked like _Sherlock Holmes_ , Sirius had claimed the couch where he was lying on his back looking through something Lily was not sure she wanted to know more about and she herself was curled in her fiancees arms on his bed. The two of them were looking through a list of honeymoon locations, as they had just about everything else ready for their wedding (Lily liked to plan with enough time to replan. Also her parents insisted she had to be twenty before she could marry).

“You know, he's actually right,” Remus spoke up after a while.

“Who Peter?” Sirius questioned, rolling onto his stomach.

“Nah, I'm talking about Moody. The more I think about it, the better of a motto-"

“CONSTANT VIGILANCE!” James interrupted.

“Constant Vigilance seems to be.”

“Why?”

“Well, Prongs for one we would have noticed Worm- _Peter_ without Evan's help.”

“You're right,” Lily stated, sitting up (which did not exactly please James). “We would never have gotten in this situation had we paid more attention and prepared ourselves for every eventuality.”

The boys all agreed with her and so they decided they would do just that.

* * *

From that day on the four of-, no actually the seven of them (Lily's best friends Marlene, Emmeline and Dorcas had joined them) started to train, both magical and muggle.

More precisely, they all started run the morning runs (James, Dorcas, Marlene and Sirius quickly regained some of their stamina from their Quidditch training) as well as lifting weights (apparently werewolves were stronger than the average) and doing gymnastics (of course none of them were good in the beginning but they, especially Lily and Emmeline, were improving quite well) and they each selected two of their old classes (or some new ones) and reread the textbooks of these subjects before ordering further material. Remus chose Defense and some of the Dark Arts, Emmeline Potions and Herbology, Marlene Arithmancy and Runes, Lily Charms and technically Muggle Studies, James Transfiguration and Magical Theory, Sirius Astronomy (they might need it) and Care of Magical Creatures and Dorcas Politics and History as they all agreed that it might help them should they need help from the goblins or another group British wizards shared quite a history with.

The Marauders and Maraudettes also requested help from James parents and as they were glad to help Euphemia gave Lily, Emmeline, Marlene and Remus some lessons basic healing while Fleamont was giving his sons and Dorcas some above entry level Auror training (they were in training anyway, but their group had not quite reached the point when they were assigned older Aurors as mentors).

In conclusion, soon the seven of them were better prepared than half to three quarters of the Auror trainees and almost every member of the Order of Phoenix.

When they did join the Order three months later (in October), they inspired some other Order members (namely Caradoc Dearborn, Milton Smith, the Prewett twins and Benjy Fenwick) to do the same. Good for them.

* * *

“Sirius?” Emmeline spoke up during one of their (“just the two of us”) study sessions in the middle of September.

“Emmy?” Sirius looked up from _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ (Sirius found he quite liked Fwoopers. Maybe he'd get one one day).

“Isn't that your brothers owl?” Emmeline motioned towards the window.

“It is.” Stunned he went to the window of his room, opened it so the black barn owl Hermod (after the Norse messenger god) could fly through and untied the letter.

 _Dear_ ~~_brother_ ~~ _Sirius,_

_You were right and Mother was wrong. I have procrastinated telling you this for a bit over two months, but you were right about the Dark Lord (he is in the process of placing a taboo on his name, be warned). I'm not yet sure if you were right about muggles and muggleborns too, but I find myself surprisingly willing to listen._

_I do apologize for not telling you that your (former, from what I gather) friend Peter started attending meetings, but I only saw him once before you found out and that was literally on the evening before, so I hope you can forgive me._

_Now, the main reason I am writing to you is that I need your help. I would not be surprised should you not be willing to help me, but I need to try._

_I (and from what I suspect Severus, but neither of are brave enough to talk about it) want out or at the very least secretly work against the Dark Lord. I am disgusted not only by what I have seen but by what I have done._

_Especially by the Dark Lord himself. Do you remember Mother's lessons about horcruxes between your last two years? I have concluded that the Dark Lord made several! He used Kreacher to test the security for his newest one. I plan to steal and destroy it, but I need your help, as it is located on an island in a cave and the lake surrounding it is infested by Inferi. _

_I apologize for everything I put you through. I just wish I had left with you that evening. Or that you had not ignored me during your first year. I imagine I would have followed you into Gryffindor otherwise. Could you imagine how different our lives would be if either of us had made a different choice?_

_This is my twelfth try for this letter (the others have been destroyed of course) and I have still not decided whether or not I am even going to send it._

~~_Love_ ~~ _Regards_

_your brother Regulus_

Sirius read the letter another three times before his brain had registered everything. Or at least he thought so.

“Sirius? Are you okay? You've been staring at that letter for about ten minutes,” Emmeline's voice pulled him back into reality. She was still lying on the ground, but she looked at him with a frown.

“No,” he replied, moving towards his bed to sit down. “No, I don't think I am.”

“What's the matter?” she questioned, sitting up to join him.

Sirius was not sure he could put it into words, so he simply handed Emmeline the letter.

“These are great news! We - and possibly the Order, depending on Dumbledore's behaviour - get one or two spies, you and your brother might make up and we finally know why no one could kill him!”

“I know. I simply didn't expect it. Also I never stopped sending him letters in my first year.”

“People change. Your brothers letter is not even the only example of that in this room.”

“What do you mean, Emms?”

Instead of replying verbally, Emmeline leaned forward to kiss him. On the lips.

When the two of them ran out of air and had to force themselves apart the only thing Sirius could think of was, “I could get used to that.”

Emmeline smiled. “Good.”


	3. Moving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Marauders and Maraudettes gain spies and James and Lily get married.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hover over Welsh text for translations (mobile and tablet users please see the Ending Notes)!

Sirius sent a letter in return, asking his little brother to meet him a week later in a muggle pub in a small village in Wales (Remus had suggested it. It was located near his birthplace, but his family had moved around so much he doubted anyone even knew he was Welsh).

Of course Sirius was not going alone, by now they were all too paranoid to make such a rookie mistake.

Lily and James were sitting in one corner, only James was blonde and Lily was a brunette for now (Colour Changing Charms were so practical). Lily was pretending to be a girly girl and James to be a goody-two-shoes.

Emmeline and Marlene took a table in the middle of the room, both had taken Polyjuice Potion of some teenage girls who had been on a vacation in London (one had been French and one Dutch, if Sirius remembered correctly).

Remus and Dorcas were located on the gallery. Remus's hair had been charmed so it was longer and he was wearing rocker style clothes (in other words he borrowed them from Sirius). Dorcas had colored contacts (now her eyes were baby blue instead of the normal amber) and had gotten a haircut. Especially with her clothes she seemed to be one of those punks you were seeing more and more often these days (provided you were in the muggle parts of the country of course).

Sirius was sitting in good view of everyone else at a table for four, waiting for his brother.

Regulus was, as always, very punctual. He arrived alone and found his brother in a split second.

Sirius stood up and pulled his brother in a hug.

"What happened on my seventh birthday?" Sirius whispered in the ear of the person who he presumed to be his brother (hey, better safe than sorry).

"Bellatrix made me kiss Elladora Crouch, our second cousin once removed. And after your fourth year?"

"Mother dearest wouldn't let my out of my room for a week and Kreacher only brought me water at your request. Shame you couldn't persuade him to bring food too."

The brothers parted and sat down (this was the all clear sign they had agreed on. Had it been an imposter Sirius would have remained standing. Subtle, yet easily noticeable, provided you knew what to look for).

After the waitress had gotten their orders, Regulus thanked his brother for coming.

"No problem. You know I never stopped sending you letters, brother. I can only assume Mother had something to do with it. I'm happy to help."

"Sounds reasonable. Now about the other issue..."

"Your drinks, Sirs."

" _Diolch_ ," Sirius replied in Welsh.

" _Doeddwn i ddim yn meddwl eich siarad Cymraeg_ ," the waitress replied.

"I don't. My friend is Welsh and he has started teaching me a few weeks ago, but you can't learn a language over the span of a few weeks. Especially not when you're busy with other stuff."

"Guess you're right," the waitress smiled before going to another table.

Regulus stared at his brother for a second before repeating the last sentence he had said before they had been interrupted.

"We'll help you, provided you will act as our spy. Not of the Order, but for the Marauders and Maraudettes."

"Deal."

* * *

"No," Lily stood there, arms crossed.

"Come on, Lils!" Sirius pleaded.

"No and begging won't help. You're our best man. You will have to dance, so you will attend my lessons."

"But I can already dance! Mother made sure of it!"

"That might be, but Emmeline can't. She will feel better if you're there."

Arguments like this had become common in the new year.

Lily had decided that they were all going to learn how to dance properly and no one else had liked the idea.

But Lily had gotten her wish and so they were in the Ballroom of the Potter Manor.

Obviously, Lily was partnered with James and Emmeline with Sirius. Remus and Dorcas had since gotten together (she had been working on this since fifth year) so they would form a pair too. Marlene had gone to Sirius for help and for some reason he mentioned it to his brother while they were getting the locket and Regulus had expressed interest. It turned out to be a mutual thing, so Marlene would either dance with Regulus or an animated dummy should he be needed elsewhere to keep his cover.

The group were surprised by the fact they actually had a lot of fun doing this and by the end of January everyone was able to dance the waltz without messing up.

* * *

It has started with a simple note from Regulus. Nothing unusual since he had turned to spy for them (thank Merlin for his skill at Occlumency), but the one they got on Valentine's day contained only three words.

_Tomorrow. Prongs parents._

So they prepared. They invited the Prewett twins, the Longbottoms, Milton Smith, Benjy Fenwick and Caradoc Dearborn over and told them what to expect. Together they increased the number of wards and built as many physical obstacles as they could.

In the end, they all survived, if only barely in most cases. James proved his determination and stamina when he only stopped to prevent his death by bleeding out when he lost his left arm from a cutting curse intended for his father's throat, but otherwise continued fighting. This consequently meant he lost his arm permanently. This was however a small price to pay for his parents' survival in James opinion.

Especially, since they managed to kill or imprison seven of the ten Death Eaters that attacked. And one of those who got away had been Regulus who had been stunned and hid for the duration of the fight (it had literally been the first thing the Black brothers had done).

This had been the highest percentage in the entire war which luckily brought the rest of the Order - excluding the Headmaster - to the realization that yes, this was a war and the time for stunning was over.

* * *

The wedding of Lily and James, James and Lily, had been wonderful, even if the groom was one armed.

For once, everything went according to the plan. Even Petunia showed up (displeasure clear on her face, but still) and she didn't even insult anyone (not even Dorcas who had dark skin), but they had been spread by the Death Eaters. Sirius had somehow managed to fit no less than twenty seven deer puns in his best man speech, to the amusement of those in the know.

It took only two months before Lily announced she was pregnant. While a war might not be the best place to raise a child, both of the Potters wanted the chance to be parents, so they kept it.

Their joy had only increased one they found out the Longbottoms were, too, expecting and that their due dates were nearly the same.

The joy of both couples and their friends had however drastically reduced when Severus Snape had showed up one rainy evening when they were enjoying an evening in the movie theater (after making sure it was safe) and informed them that Lord V, as they had started calling him since the taboo, would be after their babies, as Mervyn Wynch had overheard a prophecy that both the Headmaster and Lord V believed for some odd reason, despite it being made by a drunk desperately looking for work. Severus emphasized his regret that he had been tricked by the Lestranges - who were beginning to doubt his loyalty - so he had not been the one to spy on Dumbledore this precise week.

Lily and Severus slowly began to reconnect after this incident, as it had become obvious that he still cared for her and she never stopped to see him as a brother (eventually he even accepted this, making everyone's lives easier). Severus too started to spy for them, without the knowledge that Regulus was their original one. Both the Potters and the Longbottoms went into hiding, while the others continued to fight harder than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welsh translations:  
> Diolch - Thank you  
> Doeddwn i ddim yn meddwl eich siarad Cymraeg - I didn't think you spoke Welsh


	4. Changing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lord V is actually helping for once and the Marauders and Maraudettes figure out who he is.

Severus proved to be a big help as Lord V was sure of his loyalty, seeing as he was the Death Eaters' best potioneer and thus ended up brewing most of the potions and salves they required. And as such things as the Wideye potion were frequently needed, due to the fact that most attacks took place at night and they had to be awake during the day (unless they fancied a one way trip to Azkaban). Lord V figured that if he were not loyal he would have started poisoning or otherwise sabotaging them ages ago.

Regulus made up with money what he lacked in enthusiasm (but unknown to most he donated almost double to the other sides). Once Lucius was arrested while attacking the Prewetts (who thankfully all survived), he was the biggest monetary contributor (as Narcissa preferred to sit out during her pregnancy - one of the only excuses Lord V would accept) which increased Lord V's trust in him immensely.

This especially became true when Lord V called the two of them for a personal 'audience'. Of course both were nervous that he had figured out they were the spies (even if neither of them knew who the other was), but their fears were unfunded.

"Severus, Regulus, how nice of you to arrive," Lord V drawled with his raspy voice. "I believe I summoned you ten minutes ago."

"I'm sorry, milord, but a meeting of the Order took longer than expected and leaving earlier would have been suspicious," Severus apologized, kneeling down and keeping his eyes on the floor.

Lord V stared at him for a moment before nodding. "You will tell me the results this evening. And you, Regulus?"

"My Lord, I was taking a bath and assumed you wished for me to be clothed first," the young Black apologized with a tinge of rose on his cheeks.

Lord V seemed to accept this too (which was reasonable seeing both excuses were true. This time), as he started began to monologue.

"You two have been chosen for a great honor. I am trusting you with very important items. They are of the kind that the house elf of Regulus tested the protections for. And they should be similarly well protected."

Regulus would later be very proud of the fact that he managed to hide his disgust and hope, only showing surprise and pride. Naturally Lord V assumed he was proud to be trusted to handle his horcrux which was true, depending on how you look at it. The young Black was proud he managed to be a spy and one of Lord V's most trusted at the same time.

"I am deeply honoured, milord, but I am wondering why I was chosen," Severus questioned once Lord V was finished. "Surely there must be others in a less risky position who could provide more protection for something as valuable? The Lestranges for example?"

"You are referring to your position as my spy in the Order of the Phoenix, I presume? While, yes, this presents additional risk, the two of you are some of the most devout members of our noble cause. The Lestranges have lost some of my trust by doubting this fact. I have no doubt you will be able to keep these objects safe."

* * *

"You'll never guess what happened!" Sirius yelled as soon as he arrived in Godric's Hollow where the Marauders and Maraudettes were assembled.

"You managed a triple loop-de-loop on your bike?" Remus guessed.

"Would be awesome, but no."

"You finally found someone to practise Greek with?" Marlene suggested.

"No. I still don't know why no one is replying to that ad…" he muttered under his breath,. "But no. Lord V just gave two Death Eaters horcruxes to look after. Now guess who these two were."

"Going by the smile on your face I'm going with Reggie and Sev," Emmeline assumed.

"No way," James protested. "They're good, sure, but they can't be _that good_. Can they?"

"Apparently they are. Regulus wants to drop by on Friday to destroy it. Snape will most likely write Lily."

"Yeah, mentioning it in an Order won't do much good," Dorcas piped up from her spot on the couch with her head in Remus' lap.

"This just reminded me," Lily spoke next. "Did you remember to destroy the locket after you got it?"

"We did," Remus confirmed while Emmeline just nodded. "Wasn't even that hard thanks to the goblin blade Dorcas organized us."

"I take credit where it is due. Besides it helped us get rid of V - I still refuse to call him Lord - and I finally got to prove my skill at goblin relations. But don't forget it's stained with Basilisk venom too. Made the whole thing way harder."

"This whole thing is still too easy", Marlene argued. "Something is going to happen."

James groaned. "Yes. Because you just had to say that sentence!"

* * *

The figurative other shoe did drop not too long after that.

Regulus had to go on a trip to France for his job as Unspeakable (and Lord V was of the opinion he'd recruit some people too which would _not_ happen), so he couldn't inform them of the attack in advance.

Severus had not been informed of the attack in advance because Lord V feared the he might spill the beans so to say.

So when the attack happened, they were totally unprepared. Well, not totally, because these days everyone tried to be prepared for anything, but it was as close to it as it could get.

Which attack?

The one on Lily Evans Potter's parents.

Lord V was of the opinion that it was a good idea to try to lure the Potters out of hiding, as both them and the Longbottoms only turned up to Order meetings (to which they arrived via Floo with a stop at one of their friends houses), but were otherwise neither see nor heard.

Unfortunately - or fortunately depending on how they looked at it - it was Rose Rogers Evans' birthday, so Petunia, Vernon, James and Lily were already there when the ten Death Eaters showed up.

This was the only reason most of them survived.

When the Death Eaters showed up, Lily gripped Petunia and they went to call help, while James and amazingly Rose and Harold fought tooth and nail. The latter two of course did not use magic, but they were surprisingly good in various martial arts (and ducking).

With the help of the other Order members, they defeated the Death Eaters. But Harold Evans did not survive the attack, and Sirius lost his lower right leg.

"Your father was a great man, Lils. I'm sure little Harry will be honoured to be named after him."

* * *

Somewhere down the line, Dorcas got the idea to try to figure out Lord V's identity in an attempt to find the other horcruxes. At the end of April she finally got the desired results.

"But how can you be sure," Remus questioned, not quite daring to hope.

"Because it fits! Riddle disappears and not a month later V started his terror. And look!" she wrote TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE on a nearby parchment before flicking her wand. The letters changed too I AM LORD VOLDEMORT (and thank Merlin the taboo didn't cover writing).

"So Lord V's name is an anagram?" Emmeline still wasn't sure whether or not she believed her friend.

"Not only! It also means 'Flight from Death' in French," Sirius added, convinced by Dorcas' theory. "And I think we all know what Voldemort fears most."

"Puppies," Marlene joked.

Slowly but surely all Marauders (and Maraudettes but they had decided to join the two groups) became convinced of the theory and began to research important locations in Riddle's life.

Eventually they had a list of twelve possible locations and decided to look into every single one of them.

They managed to find and destroy the other two horcruxes (even if they only managed to do so in the middle of June) and in one final battle at the end of July - when Lord V arrived himself (due to the lack of Death Eaters he had at this point) - they completely and utterly destroyed him, leaving just a mortal, clearly dead, shell behind.


	5. New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Potters and their friends are at King's Cross.

"Mummy, I can do it myself!" nearly four-year-old Holly Potter protested when her mother tried to pick out she would be wearing today.

"I know you can, Holly. You're already a big girl after all. It's just that I know you can't decide easily, so I thought I would help. How about we pick out something together, I will get it out of the closet for you and then you can dress yourself?" Lily proposed. "After all we don't want to be late when Harry arrives, do we?"

"No! You can help! I wanna see Harry!" Holly adored her big brother and had been waiting to see him again for months now.

The two of them chose a beautiful blue dress that looked really well on Holly.

While the two of them were braiding Holly's raven hair a voice piped up from the door. "Wow, two of my favourite five women in one room, lucky day."

"Daddy!" Holly ran towards her father who picked her up.

"Hey my girl. Do you still need time? Because the show Vivy and Tony are watching will end in about five minutes."

"Holly just needs her shoes and jacket, but otherwise we're done," Lily answered her husband.

"Good! I'll do that and you can get the other two away from the TV. Sometimes I wonder why we bought that," James muttered.

Lily smiled. "You know why, James. And don't pretend you don't enjoy it too."

* * *

Roughly half an hour later the five of them entered platform 9 ¾. It was already quite busy if you considered the fact that the train would arrive in more than twenty minutes.

Violet and Anthony had to be stopped from running away to look for their friends and family while Holly refused to let go of her mother's hand.

It did not take long to find the rest of their group as Frank was quite tall, especially since he was carrying Daniel on his shoulders.

Eight-year-old Natasha Fenwick-Prewett (she had been adopted by Benjy and Gideon after her parents were killed an accident when she was six month old) was talking with Robert Longbottom (who was three months younger than her and consequently still seven) about what they wanted to do when they were grown up. Alice was still hoping her son would change his mind and not become a dragon handler.

"Hello Longbottoms! Hello Prewetts!" James greeted enthusiastically before looking around. "Aren't the others showing up too?"

"My dear cousins better show up," Narcissa Prewett-Black threatened holding the hands of her twins Cedrella and Cygnus. "If they want us to show up for their children."

"Relax, sister-in-law", Gideon grinned. "They probably just got stuck in a - what was the word - traffic jam? That right Lily?" When she nodded he continued, "Besides as if you would not show up. You've been coming for Molly's kids since Billy Boy left for the second time."

"They are coming!" Violet spotted them, "Mrs. Weasley! Uncle Padfoot! We're here!"

"Where is my greeting?" Remus questioned.

"Uncle Moony!" the Potter children chorused.

Tony quickly dragged Laura Lupin and the identical twins Dorea and Alexandra Black as far away from their parents as they thought they could get away with, while Violet and Ginny (who had shown up out of nowhere) started to talk about Quidditch with Romulus.

Emmeline was still holding little Stephen (he had just turned three last week and was very adorable) and Regulus was doing the same for his son Marius who wasn't quite two yet.

"How's the pregnancy going, Mar?" Dorcas questioned her friend.

"Well, I don't have morning sickness anymore, so I would say it's going well. How's it going with goblin relations?"

"Let's just say Binns might finally have something else but the rebellions to teach about goblins, especially thanks to the new rights they have thanks to Emmeline and Lily."

"It was the right thing to do!"

"Anyways, did you see Caradoc? He owes me a Mimbulus Mimbletonia," Alice asked the Blacks.

"No, sorry," Sirius denied. "But I saw Milton! Remind me, was that wife three or four?"

"I think it's number five," Benjy argued.

Their squabble continues like this for a couple of minutes before Tony yelled, "The train's coming!"

"Harry!" Holly cheered, while the other young kids did likewise with their respective siblings.

"I wonder if they're in our old compartment?" James mused.

"You'll see. I want to meet this Hermione Harry has written so much about." Lily quickly grabbed Tony's shirt.

"You will see her long enough when she's ov-" James paused. "Lils? Is that your sister or am I seeing things?"

Lily looked in the direction her husband pointed at. "It is! Wonder how they got here. I know neither Vernon nor Dudley is magical."

"Hello Lily," Petunia greeted tonelessly when she arrived with Dudley and Camellia in tow.

"Hello Petunia. I would not have expected you here."

"I'm here because Camellia has shown signs of magic and I'm not that cruel."

Lily winched in sympathy. "How did Vernon take it?"

"We're divorced. It's actually a good thing," Petunia smiled when Lily was about to offer her condolences. "I never realized how much I missed work. I'm now a secretary for a small computer firm. Nothing very important or anything, but I get the money I need."

"Aunt Petunia? Is that you?" a new voice questioned from behind Lily.

"Hello Harry!" both women greeted.

"I see Holly has already found you," Lily continued, seeing her daughter hugging her son's leg.

"Yeah, she did. Back to my question now…"

"It's me. We suspect Camellia is magical," Petunia answered her nephew's silent question.

Harry turned to Camellia. "Congratulations, I guess. But don't be disappointed if you don't get a letter, okay? As my family you have a standing invitation for all Gryffindor Quidditch matches until I leave school. And by that point Tony will have taken over."

"Why would your cousin come to see you lose?" Draco Prewett-Black taunted. "We all know Ravenclaw is going to win next year."

"Nah, Hufflepuff," Neville argued.

"Boys," Hermione Granger groaned. "How about we wait until after the summer to argue about the new Quidditch season?"

"Sounds like a plan," Cygnus Black agreed. "By that point at least the… Dursleys?", he looked at the family for confirmation, "Will know enough that they can join the conversation too instead of just awkwardly standing next to you."

"Thank you," Dudley said after ten seconds, as if the concept of being polite was new to him. Which wasn't that big of a stretch, Lily guessed.

"Aunt Lily? Grandma Rose told us you're a Healer. Is that something like a doctor?" Camellia asked.

"In a way. Their tasks are basically the same, but we use very different techniques."

"So basically it's like when me and Lucy - that's my best friend - go to school? She rides her bike and I walk, but we still have the same destination," Camellia pronounced the last word carefully.

After a few seconds to think about it, Lily replied, "Yes, although I can't say I've ever heard that comparison before. Thank you for coming, but I'm afraid we had already planned something for today."

Seeing how let down most of the children were, James proposed, "Of course, you could join us? You and Hermione too, Mr. and Mrs. Granger. We just wanted to do a picnic in the woods near our house. There's this beautiful opening and it would be no trouble to bring more food."

"I don't think we really have a choice if we don't want our daughter to hate us, judging from the look she's giving us," Mr. Granger replied. Petunia nodded in agreement.

Hermione blushed while the other children laughed.

"I'm Emma and that's my husband John. Just, er, how big is your family?" she questioned, looking at the large group.

Every magical adult and most of their children laughed at this. Petunia, Emma and John, as well as their children looked lost, not getting the joke.

"You still have a lot to learn a lot about the magical world," Sirius smiled as they went towards the gate. 


End file.
